Blade Runner (1982)

Director:

Ridley Scott

Writers:

Hampton Fancher (screenplay) and
David Webb Peoples (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

25 June 1982 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

A Futuristic Vision Perfected [2007 Final Cut]

Plot:

Deckard, a blade runner, has to track down and terminate 4 replicants who hijacked a ship in space and have returned to earth seeking their maker.

Plot Keywords:

Future | Police | Cyberpunk | Fez | Sex Slave

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 9 wins & 14 nominations

Cast

Harrison Ford	...	Rick Deckard
Rutger Hauer	...	Roy Batty
Sean Young	...	Rachael
Edward James Olmos	...	Gaff
M. Emmet Walsh	...	Bryant
Daryl Hannah	...	Pris
William Sanderson	...	J.F. Sebastian
Brion James	...	Leon Kowalski
Joe Turkel	...	Dr. Eldon Tyrell
Joanna Cassidy	...	Zhora
James Hong	...	Hannibal Chew
Morgan Paull	...	Holden
Kevin Thompson	...	Bear
John Edward Allen	...	Kaiser
Hy Pyke	...	Taffey Lewis

Also Known As:

Blade Runner: The Final Cut (International: English title) (recut version)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and brief nudity (definitive cut); Rated R for violence. (1991 version)

Runtime:

117 min

Country:

USA | Hong Kong

Language:

English | German | Cantonese | Japanese | Hungarian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Italy:T | USA:R (Definitive Cut) | Germany:12 (re-rating) (2007) | Brazil:14 | West Germany:16 (f) | Portugal:M/12 | Ireland:15A | New Zealand:M | Denmark:15 (original rating) | Spain:13 | UK:15 (video rating) (1986) | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Ireland:15 | Israel:PG | Japan:R-15 (director's cut) | Netherlands:16 (director's cut) | Norway:15 | Peru:18 | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:AA (original rating) | USA:R | Norway:16 (original rating) | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

2nd Street Tunnel, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Ladd Company, The

Trivia:

For the first aerial shot of the city, showing the Asian billboard for the first time, a kitchen sink can be seen masquerading as a building in the far background of the shot.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the final sequence on the rooftop between Deckard and Batty, Batty releases a bird he is holding while it is raining. When we cut to a shot of the bird flying away, the bird is not flying in rain, the sky is cloudless. Additionally, the building alongside which the bird flies looks nothing like the Bradbury building. Director Ridley Scott has admitted that when he filmed the rooftop scene, he was unable to get a proper shot of the bird flying due to the rain effects employed during the shoot (doves do not fly in wet weather). Consequently, the "dove-flying-away" sequence had to be shot at a later date completely different weather and beside a completely different building (Corrected in the 2007 "Final Cut" of the movie; digital effects have been used to match the sky to the weather and the building to the roof of the Bradbury).

Quotes:

[first lines]
Female announcer over intercom: Next subject: Kowalski, Leon. Engineer, waste disposal. File section: New employee, six days.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Signs of the Times: Graphic Design (2007) (V)

Soundtrack:

BLADE RUNNER

A glorious, timeless nightmare

Dark, deep, uncertain, unsettling – imagine the most beautiful nightmare you've ever had – this is Blade Runner (1982).

Ridley Scott's Blade Runner is a brilliantly crafted science fiction film that not only touches upon, but bravely plunges into deep philosophical questions, making it simply ten times more important than any film of its genre. I love it not only for the initial feeling it gives, but because of its perseverance – none of the visuals, themes or technology feel dated but as deep, gripping and current as ever. It is timeless beauty with huge doses of emotion.

Set in 2019 Los Angeles, Blade Runner zooms in on the eerily-lit, urban streets of the city and follows Richard Deckard – superbly played by Harrison Ford who brings an exquisite moral ambiguity to his character – a special policeman who tracks down and terminates artificially-created humans called replicants, who have escaped from an Off-World colony and made their way to earth and need to be stopped. The things Deckard encounters on his detective journey raise many philosophical questions like: Who is really a replicant? Are replicants really bad? If replicants are bad, when why did we go to such lengths with our technology to create them? Are replicants really humans? Is Deckard a hero? This truly is a film that demands subsequent discussion and its ambiguous ending leave a haunting and eerie feeling.

In spite of a rich glaze of science fiction and futurism coating this adventure, there are distinct film noir elements present – primarily in the bluish haze that the film is seen through and its gritty urban atmosphere. Whoever thought of this combination is a genius. Since it is all about technology, it fits then that Blade Runner features a ridiculous amount of product placement, especially from Atari. In any other film, this would have felt out-of-place but here it is simply perfect. The score by Vangelis is strangely gripping when combined with the striking cinematography of the film.

Blade Runner deserves credit, celebration and remembrance for it is simply an excellent film.

10 out of 10 (and I don't just throw this grade out like SOME people)